Tuesday 17th January 2023 - Marshfield.

 

Only 2 of the 3 Amigos were able to get out today as Bryan had taken a week’s holiday and was in Devon, so it was left to David and Tony. As the weather had been so atrocious we decided that we needed to go where we could walk on roads and not through wet and muddy fields and we chose Marshfield where a walk along Rushmead Lane and back would take up the 3 hours that we had. On our way we did find Blackbird and Carrion Crow. We parked at the west end of Marshfield and before we set off we logged, Magpie, Starling, Goldfinch and Woodpigeon. Walking down Bond’s Lane David spotted a Mistle Thrush in the top of a tree which took a while to identify as we were looking into the sun. In the lane we found Jackdaw in a field, Redwing in a hedge and a flyover Skylark the 1st of many we saw during the morning. As we turned into Castle Lane House Sparrows and Blue Tits were seen. Continuing Herring Gull and Collared Dove were ticked. Now in Rushmead Lane again David spotted 3 Red Legged Partridge at the edge of a field and a Rook was spotted flying over. To our right a large flock of birds took to the air we thought put up by a bird of prey but not seen by us but a few of the birds flew in our direction which turned out to be Fieldfare. During the morning we saw well in excess of 100. A Lesser Black Back Gull flew up the valley to our left and a Pheasant was added to the days list. Looking back to our right the flock of birds again took to the air, this time we did spot the culprit, a female Sparrowhawk which made a hasty retreat being mobbed by crows. Great Tit and Dunnock were soon seen and a flock of Common Gulls flew past. As we walked on I spotted a Kestrel in the valley below. Robin, Stock Dove and Linnet were seen before we reached the end of the lane. At the end of the lane in the corner of the field was a frozen area of water and here a Pied Wagtail was seen on the ice. 

Pied Wagtail - Marshfield (Bath Birdwatcher)

In the fields over the main road just opposite Rushmead Lane were literally 100’s of birds mostly made up of over 100 Fieldfare almost the same quantity of Skylarks, and maybe a 100 Starling, but also were smaller quantities of Yellowhammer, Redwings, Chaffinch and Goldfinch plus 3 more Red Legged Partridge. On the way back we went via West Littleton Road and here we found some more Yellowhammers another flock of 50+ Fieldfare and up to 50 more Starlings, also we added Stonechat to the day list. Nothing more seen but certainly a great day for the sheer quantity of birds we encountered.

Fieldfare - Marshfield (Bath Birdwatcher)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday 11th November 2023 - Newton St Loe.

Image
  NSL Boathouse with the lonely Mute Swan - Bath Birdwatcher When we woke up on Saturday it was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk at Newton St Loe as we have not visited since the 26 th of October and we were interested not only in the bird life but the autumn colour’s of the trees. We arrived parking as usual by the church where in the field beyond the church we found our first sightings Magpie, Jackdaw and Rooks all flyover. In the hedgerow opposite the cottages were Blue Tits and Woodpigeons and Long Tailed Tits were in the trees by Ripple Effect. On the footpath were Blackbird and Robin and on reaching Butterfly Alley a Grey Heron was in the trees above the stream, and a Wren flew into the hedge to our right. The lake outlet was a real torrent over the waterfall which was expected due to the amount of rain we have had recently. Waterfall NSL (Bath Birdwatcher)  Up to the bottom lake where 2 Kingfishers were playing chase and I thought I heard a possible 3...
Read more

Sunday 19th January 2025 - Blagdon Lake

Image
  The first, Bath RSPB’s field trip of the year was a visit to Blagdon lake where Nigel Milbourne the site warden led our group of 14 members. When we arrived having seen a Red Kite on the way we were waiting for others to arrive, so I scanned the lake and found Mallard, Coot, Tufted Duck, Moorhen and Black Headed Gull. As others arrived we all got together, and David introduced us all to Nigel and we set off to walk the length of the dam looking for an overwintering Common Sandpiper but unfortunately it didn’t show but we did find Mute Swan, Cormorant, Common Gull, Great Black Back Gull, Pied Wagtail and Herring Gull. Walking back to the cars we added flyover Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Starling plus our 1 st Great Crested Grebe of the day. We then drove inside the confines of the lake where we parked and from here our 1 st new bird of the day was a calling Chaffinch and on the lake in front of us were Teal, Pochard and Gadwall. We also looked at a strange duck which had caused...
Read more

Tuesday 4th March 2025 - Marshfield

Image
  A bit f a last-minute decision was to go to Marshfield for this week’s birding trip mainly as we could only spare a half day. Parking at the Bath end of Marshfield we set off towards Bond’s Lane spotting Robin, House Sparrow and Goldfinch. Crossing the A420 we set off down the lane where Jackdaw and Woodpigeon flew past and in a field to our left were 2 Ravens feeding on something unknown in the grass, they flew away and a Carrion Crow flew in taking their place. As we continued David spotted movement in a hedge to our right but looking into the sun made it difficult to identify the birds but one flew up into a bush to our right enabling up to identify it as a lovely male Yellowhammer, a year tick.  Yellowhammer - Marshfield (Bath Birdwatcher) A Dunnock flew down onto the side of the road and a flock of Rooks flew past. A Skylark was singing in the sky above us but hard to find against the blue sky but with binoculars I did find it year tick no2. A Blue Tit and a few Linnets...
Read more